Week 1: The Broken Life

1. THE BROKEN LIFE

 

“He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness…” Isaiah 53:3 (AMPC)

 

Jesus was acquainted with grief. He experienced pain and suffering not only on the Cross but throughout His life—in His body and soul (Isaiah 53:12). Jesus was rejected by His own. They chased Him out of the synagogues and wanted to kill Him. That was His life.

 

The early Church preached about the sufferings of the Lord, but then the modern church brought in a grace and prosperity message, and now suffering is seen as a curse. Because of these misleading teachings, God’s Spirit people often think that when they suffer, God is afflicting them, or they are not really Christians. 

 

 

2. BREAK WITH THE OLD

 

• All of us have sinned and have an old nature. We can only enter Heaven if we accept the work of Jesus on the Cross and are born again (Romans 3:23-26).

 

• Doing good works and having good traits will not get us into Heaven. Why? Because the good nature we think we have is still Satan’s nature, which has good and evil in it.

 

PRAY: Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your only begotten Son to die for our sins. Help us to crucify our old nature and walk in the life of Christ. Amen.

 

 

3. BROKEN

 

Satan knows the power we have in suffering (2 Timothy 2:12), so he told the Church: “You don’t have to suffer.” Jesus overcame Satan and sin through His suffering on the Cross. Satan could not kill Him. Jesus willingly laid down His life and poured it out for us (John 10:18) without opening His mouth or defending Himself.

 

Jesus is pure and holy—perfect in all His ways. He could have opened His mouth and pointed fingers at those around Him, but He didn’t. When we are persecuted and rejected and experience suffering as children of God, do we open our mouths and try to defend ourselves, argue, and fight? Or do we follow the example of Jesus and keep quiet?

 

"All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth." Isaiah 53:6-7 (NKJV)

 

 

4. #PRAY4SA

 

Set time aside and pray that South Africa will see God’s power through our brokenness.